


Fresh Start

by Littlepurplething



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Beginnings, F/M, Non-Canon Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:53:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25441198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Littlepurplething/pseuds/Littlepurplething
Summary: Way back when Lucy first left her father's control, she came across someone else from Fairy Tail. She starts to become a fan of Laxus and The Thunder Legion, will she ever become one of them?
Relationships: Bickslow/Lucy Heartfilia, Evergreen/Elfman Strauss, Laxus Dreyar/Mirajane Strauss
Comments: 2
Kudos: 69





	1. Runaway Mage

She left him, left his strict house with silence. Her feet lightly made their way down the long driveway, late at night with a small beg seated on her back. She packed only the essentials; clothes, her spirit keys, some food she stole from the kitchen, and books that she couldn’t live without. Mainly the most prized possession from her mother, a children’s book that Lucy has had since she was five years old.

She groaned, shoving a piece of hair behind her ear when she almost tripped over a fallen tree branch. Tears falling down her face, her hands vigorously wiping them only to be replaced by more, and she groaned again by the thought that her own father didn’t even care about her.

“Such a dick,” Lucy murmured just when she shoved the gate to her former home shut behind her.

With her head down, Lucy made her way down the dirt road in the dead of night. Why did he have to control every aspect of her life? She didn’t understand why he had such a problem with her, like did he even love her anymore?

Breaking a sob through the starry night sky, she rubbed her nose as it was becoming too wet for her own comfort.

However, where was she going to go? She didn’t have any place to go as she was sheltered in her huge mansion prison her whole life, only allowed to go to other huge mansion prisons for parties and balls of all sorts. Lucy had only ever seen the inside of a proper, clean, and respected society. Even if they weren’t too proper themselves.

Lucy hit the fringe of the town an hour later, seeing it deserted at what seemed to be 3 in the morning. Her head shifted around the town, cold and empty as she felt right now. Leaves floating around in the air, causing Lucy to cover her upper arms and shiver while she pulled her bag straps up further.

“Gods, this sucks,” her voice croaked when she sat on a bench just outside of a small cake shop. Her brown eyes looked further for a place to sleep for the night. Then she had spotted a lone hotel at the end of the street.

Lucy hopped up from the bench and made her way to the hotel, hopefully, she had enough to stay there and figure out what she wanted to know. quickly throwing open the doors causing the receptionist to jump and yelp at her loud entrance.

Puckering up her face, Lucy cringed as she slowly made her way to the desk, “Um, hello. Sorry for scaring you. I, uh, was wondering if you had any rooms open.”

The girl behind the desk frowned at her, her brown hair pinned high on her head with her make-up bright in the misty night. The stellar mage watched her long nails pull a black book from under the desk and open it up while staring straight at the blonde.

Flipping to one-third of the way through the book, seeing the date in the top right corner. “We have a few rooms open for the night, its 140 jewels a night.”

“Oh great! I need a room for the night please,” she felt awkward pleading, but she also felt very vulnerable at this moment.

Not even answering her, the receptionist wrote down something in the book before fishing out a key to hand to Lucy.

Once Lucy slumped on the bed after throwing her bag right at the front door, she glanced up at the ceiling. She was now a runaway; all alone and now has to live in this world by herself. It honestly surprising to her that her father didn’t even stop her. He had to have known that she left right? He would have stopped her right?

Right?

A tear left her eye at the thought, he didn’t stop her. He let her leave and didn’t call out to her or even have someone come out to get her back. He didn’t want her, and Lucy felt deep down that she knew that. She knew that he never wanted her as a daughter, he’s said he wanted a son instead. He didn’t say it to her, but she heard it, that’s all that matters.

Swiftly wiping the tear, forgetting it all and reaching for her book and laying back for the rest of the night. There’s no reason for her dwell on it, move forward, and move up in the world.

[***]

It has been a week since she left her prison and she felt lost. That night she stayed at the hotel, she went from hotel to hotel, trying to figure out where she wanted to go. Now, she ran out of money she took with her.

Making her way through the forest with her packed tightly backpack on her back, filled with food she took for her long journey to the next town. It was a sunny day, all too sunny for her. her forehead was sweating as well as her armpits, her poor shirt was drenched in sweat. Lucy had already called out Horologium once today, so that was out of the question.

Her knees made contact with the dry dirt below and the sticks that decided to stick in her skin, as she made a place to sit for at least an hour until she got her energy back.

She leaned back on the bark of the large tree behind her, taking a big and long breath to try and understand why she was even doing this to herself. Yet, she remembered the voice of her father, yelling at her and telling her how her life is going to go. The blonde shook her head, not back to that ever again.

Her eyes lifted to the sky beyond the branches and green leaves to see the bright blue sky turn to grey and cloudy. Sitting up slightly, Lucy’s eyebrows furrowed at the rapid weather change. Was it going to rain?

Right when she asked that question in her head, it started to rain, only lightly. Lucy groaned quickly shoving in her things roughly in her bag before running off to even more trees. She wasn’t thinking of where she was going, running further into the woods weren’t going to help her whatsoever. So, now her only option was to stand under this large tree, soaking wet holding up a large leaf she found above her head, really trying not to cry.

“Fuck everything,” she cursed under her breath. Hoping this ends soon but seeing as it was now raining harder, she doubted it.

To the right of her, she watched something leap past a group of trees, screaming and turning their head behind them. She couldn’t hear what they said but she did hear this person laugh manically right afterward. Lucy raised a brow just as four other figures ran after them, one was fucking huge, as in bulk and muscle. One of them was riding on something because she saw that they were not touching the ground. One had long hair that flowed behind them while the last one seemed to be someone with wings?

Lucy shook her head, she had to help them, right? Even though she wasn’t part of a guild she was still going to help.

Her fingers grazed against her keys laid on her hip, looking determined to aid them as she ran off towards them as well. Feet jumping over branches and arms swatting away tree limbs to spot all four figures in a clearing, still raining, while three were facing off against the one.

The lone one stood tall, hands on his hips with a smirk painted on his features. “You thought you got me, yet you fell into my trap! I have you surrounded!” he declared, yelling with a loud cackle.

Lucy looked around, spotting a puddle just behind her and just about decided against it before pulling out Aquarius’ key and summoning the spirit.

“DID YOU JUST SUMMON-,” she started to yell before Lucy shushed her harshly, already hearing the reprimand she was going to receive later but pointed to the group beyond the trees.

“Can you flood the area? I don’t want them to know I’m here,” the blonde whispered, watching her huff and move her urn to her other arm, giving the stellar mage a critical look before setting herself up.

Lucy moved to the left when Aquarius shot out her torrent stream, flooding the entire area. The blonde bulky guy growled with yellow static pulsing around him, his eyes trained to the lone man who had been washed out of the clearing causing the guy to groan before running into the woods again.

The three others Lucy saw as she spits out water, ran after the two of them. Lucy shook her head of hair and watched them run off. Shit, did she just make it worse? Lucy was just about to run off with them when Aquarius glared down at her.

[***]

Laxus caught the bastard in his fist, slamming him against the tree that had just been behind him. Finally catching this guy bubbled his chest with anger, all he did was run and lie. This guy was just a bag full of lies and cowardness.

Pulling his fist back to pound his fucker straight in the mouth, where his lies were spouting off. A hand-pulled his elbow, moving himself back. Looking behind him to see Freed pulling back and shaking his head just Laxus dropped him on the cold ground.

“What? Y-you not gonna-a kill-,” being cut off from the kick to the mouth by the lightning slayer himself.

“Tie him up. I’m gonna find out who flooded the area,” Laxus told Freed, motioning for Bickslow to follow him.

The Seith mage jogged up to him with his totems following just behind his head as he leisurely strolled next to his teammate. His head turned to Laxus with a sly smile before letting his long tongue slide out of his mouth, “What are we doing Boss?”

“Finding the person who flooded the clearing,” he spoke clearly looking around. It was harder to find this person with the water washing away the scent until they spotted someone running out from in between two close trees, almost getting stuck.

Lucy ran out to see two of the guys standing there staring back at her with leaves crinkling under her feet, one had his hands behind his head and the other had his arms crossed glaring at her. She felt self-conscious, rubbing her left arm with her right. “You guys don’t need help do you?”

Laxus grunted as he shifted his footing, “No, you actually made it worse.”

Her head dropped and Bickslow elbowed Laxus in the side, “What the hell dude? You just made her upset,” the Seith mage whispered.

She cleared her throat, “Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean too. I’ll, uh, just go now.”

“Wait,” Bickslow shouted, holding out his hand for her to stop. Almost feeling the glare pointed to his back by his teammate. “What guild you belong to? Did you take this mission too?”

Cocking her head to the side, “I don’t belong to a guild,” she didn’t even think about that. Should she join a guild? Would they accept her? How was she ever going to be accepted just the way she was?

“Great, we don’t have to split the reward,” Laxus murmured as he walked back to the two others dragging the lone man by the armpits.

The only one left was Bickslow and Lucy. The stellar mage shifted awkwardly and jingled her keys in anxiousness, looking up she saw the man looking back at his group and then back at her, “My names Bickslow,” he told her.

“I-I’m Lucy,” shaking his outstretched hand.

“Welp bye!” he cheered waving and running back to his teammates and flashing his guild marked tongue to her before leaving her all alone in the forest. Her eyes trained up to the sky again, seeing the bright blue, cloudless sky again. Where did the storm do?

[***]

It had been just 10 days since Lucy had encountered the four mages that had taken down a dark guild that was near where she was almost about to stay at. Lucy was on her way to the next town when she spotted a magazine at a stand on the sidewalk.

Just after finding some food she bought the magazine and actually found the four mages she ran into. They were ‘posed’ on a whole page for themselves, with the title, “Best team in Fairy Tail?”

Lucy took a seat at an outside café, setting her cup on the table and getting comfortable to read this article.

Seeing separate pictures with names, she finally saw their names. Laxus was blonde with a lightning scar across his eye. He looked away from the camera with a scowl on his face and that was exactly what she expected from him. He was brash and rude and basically made her feel bad about helping out.

The green-haired man had long straight hair with one eye hidden behind his fringe. His description said he was the brains of the team and his magic consisted of Letter magic and eye magic? What on Earthland was eye magic? That actually was super interesting.

The third was a woman, Evergreen, with brown hair that was tied up in a bun in the back of her head with it sticking up slightly. Her glasses made a glint from the flash and a short green dress that instantly reminded her of a fairy. Her magic was…fairy magic? Geez, this girl loves fairies. She also had eye magic. Wow, Lucy really had to look up this magic herself.

The last man had a striped hooded shirt that held tight over his eyes and his tongue sticking out with the guild mark stamped right on the front. His name was Bickslow, so he wasn’t lying about that. She couldn’t see much of him on the picture as a small totem was floating halfway in the picture. His magic was Seith magic? Hmm, that was new. He also had eye magic!

Slamming the magazine shut she was now more determined than ever to find out more about them. She had to now find out more about their magic because her mind would not rest until she knew what the hell they were.

Hours later, Lucy found herself in the library in the same town with piles of books and newspapers, anything she could find one eye magic and all other types they had. There wasn’t much on Seith magic because it was a type of black magic.

Her first step was looking into Laxus, he was the leader as it seems to this group. He was actually the master’s grandson. There wasn’t much here about his father, wonder why. His magic was lightning magic, Lucy witnessed it firsthand with the lightning static forming around him in that clearing. Also, it shows a lot of his moves and how he got his S-class status.

“Wow, he seems very powerful. No wonder he’s rude, he probably thinks he’s the fucking king,” Lucy murmured to herself. There weren’t many photos of him or his team, they seemed to be very reclusive, contract to the rest of the Fairy Tail guild.

Her hand set itself on the tome of Eye magic. That’s the one she really wanted to know, the three she saw with Laxus all had eye magic.

“Was this too invasive?” she asked herself, she was looking heavily into their lives and their magic’s and she knew nothing about them personally. She hummed, tapping her fingers on the hardcover of the tome in front of her.

Shrugging she continued on her research, it’s not like she had anything else to do. That was until someone had slammed their hand on the table she was working on. “Hey, we closed about 10 minutes ago. You need to leave,” the librarian informed Lucy in an aggravated tone.

Lucy huffed, glaring at the young girl and throwing all her books she gathered on the table. Pulling her bag over her shoulder and stomping right out the door. She would just come back in the morning to work more.

When morning came, after her morning shower at the hotel, Lucy walked in with a tenacious attitude. It didn’t matter that she didn’t really know these people, she thought they were kind of awesome. They were all strong and their magic was pretty interesting. It was like she was just a fan of them.

“Maybe one day, I’ll join Fairy Tail and be friends with them,” setting herself up on the table and going to grab the books she got yesterday.

Though, she couldn’t find the tome on eye magic anywhere. The stellar mage walked up to the front desk with the young lady from last night, “Um, hello. I’m sorry about last night but can you help me out?”

The librarian clicked her nails against the desk, her lips forming into a straight line and she leaned back in her chair. “Hmm, I don’t know. what did you need help with?” her voice was full of reluctances towards Lucy.

Lucy chose to swallow her bad choice words for the lady and kindly smiled, “I had a book here yesterday about Eye magic and I can’t seem to find it anywhere. Do you happen to know where it might be?” the young librarian seemed to like her response as she got up and went to look for her.

Politely saying thank you, Lucy waited at the table for her to come back but once she did, she couldn’t find it either. It looked like she wasn’t going to research anymore of eye magic. Lucy had decided to move to the next town over so she could find rogue work to make at least some money.

Now, she had things to learn so maybe she could feel more comfortable in joining an awesome guild like Fairy Tail.


	2. Bonding Time?

It had been months since Lucy had seen Laxus and the Thunder legion. She didn’t really expect to see them after that one time in the forest, it had said in one of the magazines that they usually take long missions with Laxus’ S-class status.

Her feet landed lightly on the concrete step of the platform from the train station. It only took about an hour from where she was traveling. Lucy had gotten some Jewel from a solo mission, just a simple one of getting some groceries for an old lady. Nothing too wild.

Lucy took a long sniff, smelling the old salt wafting through the air from the harbor. This was the other port city in Fiore, Cedar. She came here in search of more keys and maybe more on eye magic. Anywhere she went, she couldn’t find anything on the magic. No books, no tomes, and no people who knew about it.

The slight breeze felt nice on her sweat-soaked neck. Catching a butterfly on her finger and smiling before letting it fly off.

It felt different being on her own, she didn’t know much. Her father sheltered her from the world, so running away was just a whole new experience to see the world and seeing people outside of a mansion where they weren’t paid to like her.

“Now, where was that magic shop,” Lucy muttered to herself as her boot lifted off the platform to the town itself. It was a fairly large town, so it was probably going to take some time to find it.

The trip to the magic shop turned out to be a bust, they did inform her that a silver key was in their other shop in the next town over. It was just like their harbor town called Hargeon. She’ll go there after doing at least one job here and earn some money. Now, she held two books under her arm as she walked down the street to get some food.

The blonde had finally found some tomes on eye magic and one on Seith magic. It hardly costs anything too. Now, she was going to actually learn the art too.

Waving at a vendor off the street who was selling various fruits and vegetables, she made her way down another street. Lucy was starting to think she was lost when she saw the same street vendor for the fourth time. So, she went a different way on the same street, only to run right into someone causing her to fall straight on her ass.

“Hey! Watch where – oh hello there, pretty lady,” this person had yelled, then turned suave as he helped her to her feet.

“Oh, thank you,” she tried to take her hand back when he gripped it tighter. This kid was younger than her by probably 7 years younger with brown hair that was a bit shabby along the side. The oddest thing about this boy was he was wearing a full suit of armor sans the helmet and carrying a shield and large pointed sword that was his entire body size.

He kissed her hand, her eyebrows frowning at the notion, “M’ lady, my name is Dan and it is your pleasure to meet me.”

This time she did yank her hand out of both of his. This might have looked mean, but she couldn’t help it, Lucy wiped the back of her hand on her skirt and backed a step away from him, “Um, thanks but no thanks. I’m sure you’re too young for me.”

His lips turned into a smirk, leaning forward to her, “Not too young.”

The stellar mage grimaced before turning and walking away without another word. This kid needs to learn to keep his hands to himself, that was until he grabbed her wrist just before she could, “You can’t just walk away from me,” he snarled.

“Get away from me, asshole,” she cried out, pulling her arm away. Her other hand rolled down to her hip, grasping at a key, about to summon one when both were knocked over by someone that was barreling down the street.

The books under her armpit had fallen just across the pavement, out of arms reach. “Bickslow stop running! Laxus won’t wait up for you!” Lucy heard a female voice call from the other side of the street.

There was a slight cackle above her, her brown eyes lifted to see the one and only Bickslow that had been on her mind for months, picking up her tome of eye magic with a frown on his face.

“Why do you have this?” he asked curiously, flipping the first page and a few more pages before closing it loudly.

Lucy stood to her feet extending towards the tome when he pulled it back, out of reach from the blonde. The stellar mage huffed reaching more when a totem pushed her chest back away from the Fairy Tail mage, “That’s mine,” she grumbled as she crossed her arms.

“Of my magic, why?” he retorted, she noticed his other four totems behind his head just as his one totem floated just above her face and his chest.

Cheeks burned red, Lucy’s chin dipped as she rubbed her arm, “No reason really.”

“Hey! You just gonna ignore me?” the two then turned to Dan who was standing arms crossed with a sullen look in his eyes.

Shrugging, Lucy’s brown eyes looking bored as can be, “I was going to,” picking up her other book off the ground. She was glad that Bickslow didn’t see the Seith book she also had with her.

“Beat it, kid,” Laxus thundered from behind Dan in his long furry coat. His stare drove the kid away, then his stare moved onto the small blonde with a questioning look of her own. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“And what are you doing with this?” spinning around to see Evergreen now with the eye magic in her hands with Bickslow standing over her reading as she stared Lucy down, “Who even are you?” her fist rested on her hip that she jolted out.

Stepping back and scratching the back of her neck in nervousness, she didn’t think they would be angry about her wanting to know their magic, she thought they would be glad someone took interest in them, Lucy took another step back when she bumped into a rune barrier. 

Turning her head, she saw Freed standing next to an angry Laxus that seemed to not have moved since she last looked at him. The stellar mage swallowed as she looked at the four of them nervously, “I, uh, thought that maybe…I…fuck,” she stuttered and gritted her teeth because she had never stuttered this much in her life before.

“So, what you’re stalking us?” her voice was full of skepticism, just as Evergreen tilted her glasses down and her eyes turned a bright gold color.

Lucy yelped, looking away from her and up to the sky, “No! No, not like that at all! I’m kind of like a fan. I saw you guys fighting in the forest that one day and I just thought it was amazing. I thought I would research your magic and it’s super amazing, I couldn’t find more when someone took out the book I found and I couldn’t find anymore and I saw that in the magic shop when I was looking for more keys and I just had to find get to know more because it’s just so interesting and captivated my curiosity. I…I-,”

“Will you shut up!” Laxus interrupted her skittish rant that didn’t seem like it was going to end, his head thrown back in exaggeration.

The blonde whimpered in the rune box she was stuck in, Bickslow moved forward towards her, “You think our magic is cool?”

His movements were slow as his totems moved with him; Lucy couldn’t see his eyes, but his mouth was closed with no tongue and no laughing which told Lucy that he was serious from all the Sorcerer Weekly. Her hands rested on her shoulders, hugging herself as she spoke, “Yes, especially yours. Your Seith magic is the most delicate and thoughtful gift a lost and wandering soul could have.”

Behind his visor, his red eyes widened but his mouth fell open too. Lucy let out a small smile at the notion, then she turned back to Evergreen, “I also really like your stone magic. It really reminds of the old legend of medusa who also had wings like your own, but they became a monster from a goddess’ wrath.”

Evergreen’s cheeks blushed red and hid herself behind the small staff she was holding with a little ‘thank you’ to accompany it.

She spun around to face Freed and Laxus, eyes snapping to the blonde then back down to Freed, “Your magic is very brilliant and cunning that it makes everyone else stupid in comparison you know what kind of runes to make whenever and quickly enough to trap someone who wasn’t expecting it.”

The green-haired man, who’s hand was stationed on his katana, stance relaxed; only Lucy saw the slight smile that graced his face before he turned his head away from her and crossed his arms. The stellar mage looked back to the hulking blonde and was opening her mouth about his magic when he cut her off.

“Don’t even start with me blondie, I don’t give a shit what you think about my magic. It’s getting late and we need to get to the hotel,” Laxus moved past Freed and herself, all the way down the street not caring about who was following him.

Freed walked behind him shortly afterward, followed by Bickslow and Evergreen shortly after, leaving Lucy on the sidewalk by herself. She had figured they were just going to leave her there anyway, what she didn’t see was Bickslow’s totems rounding the corner and floating around her.

“What are you cuties doing?” she asked, watching them twirl in the air and float just behind her then started pushing her body towards the street Laxus and the thunder legion just left. Stuttering her words for them to stop what they were really doing while one pushed on the back of her knees to move her feet.

With one between her shoulders, two behind her knees so she was walking instead of dragging her feet and two others along her spine so she wouldn’t fall over. her honey brown eyes lifted at the shout of Bickslow calling his ‘babies’ back when he saw them pulling her with them.

He had to stop in his tracks to watch them pull the little blonde towards him with a sly smile on his twisted lips, “Did my babies catch a little cosplayer?” he chuckled.

“Who you calling a cosplayer?” Lucy cried out, fulling standing in front of the Seith mage with his totems now behind him floating up and down.

His hand lifted and down her figure, “You’re wearing that. A tiny crop top and a mini skirt, such a cosplayer thing.”

Gasping, Lucy wiped her hands down her blue button shirt and navy-blue skirt, “What? This is comfortable and my father would hate it,” she mumbled the last part, looking down at her brown boots.

“Oh, daddy hater. I can turn that into something, something your dad is going to super hate,” cackling with his guild marked tongue jolting out.

Blushing too hard, smacked the Seith mage in the chest about to respond when Evergreen called out, “Bickslow are you coming or what?” popping her head around the corner to see Bickslow and the small blonde girl having a conversation.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming,” glancing back down to Lucy, “You have somewhere to stay?”

Lucy frowned her eyebrows at him, why did he want to know that? Her eyes shifted to Evergreen standing by the corner with her arms crossed as she watched their interaction. Hopefully, this didn’t flop like earlier, “No, I was going to look for somewhere to stay after I get some Jewel from my small job, but that’s not until tomorrow and-.”

“Why don’t you come stay with us? We have a couch and it is getting late,” his thumb pointing the way the other three Fairy Tail mages went.

“What about them? Shouldn’t you ask them?” Lucy offered, thinking Laxus would not like that Bicks brought home some lost dog. Yeah, that wouldn’t go very well.

Waving off the blonde, “Who cares, I bring girls back all the time,” another smack to his chest causing him to laugh again, “I know you aren’t into that cosplayer.”

Mumbling ‘not a cosplayer’ as they walked together towards the team's hotel. Lucy watched Evergreen smack Bickslow on his shoulder about bringing home someone else while telling him that Laxus isn’t going to like this. Lucy’s left hand rummaged through her bag making sure she had her books her tomes and didn’t leave them on the ground.

Now, at the door to their double hotel rooms, Lucy was getting nervous. She didn’t want Laxus to call her out or something of that nature. Bicks unlocked it, Lucy gripped her strap tighter watching Ever walk in after him and slowly walking behind him.

“What the hell took you guys so long?” the booming voice of Laxus was heard from beyond the threshold, as she stepped through, she saw him on one bed off to the right with his soundpods on and looking very relaxed.

That was until he looked up to a shy blonde standing in his hotel room, both hands gripping her bag tightly and a smug-looking Bickslow standing behind her with his arms crossed, “What?” he asked.

“What, what?” Bickslow retorted, shrugging and making his way over the bed opposite of the blonde brute.

Freed, from over by the balcony window with a book in his hands, turned to see Lucy standing there looking at Laxus and then to Bickslow. It seemed that the little blonde was having anxiety about the situation at hand, “It seems to me that Bickslow brought her here for the night. By the way, I never got your name,” Freed to the rescue, she should have known.

Thrusting her hand out to shake his, “Lucy, it’s just for the night I swear, and I’ll leave you guys alone,” she instantly swiped her fingers across her keys on her hip for comfort. She also heard a small ‘whatever’ from Laxus before he turned away on his bed, for sleep?

“Can I ask what your magic is,” Evergreen called out from the bed next to Bickslow, though it felt more of a statement than a question. She had flipped off her shoes and was checking out her nails as she waited for Lucy to answer.

“Oh!” grabbing one of her keys from her ring, “I use celestial spirit magic. I call spirits from another realm to assist me, I also use this whip to help them but I’m not too good with it yet,” her finger sliding down the leather of the whip on her opposite hip.

She took a seat on the sofa, the little space that wasn’t being used for baggage, seeing the totems fly over to the bedside table and stack atop each other then it fell silent, “That’s close to my own magic,” Bickslow commented, pulling his visor off and pulling his hood back.

Lucy got a good look at his blue, mohawk hair, tinged with black at the base; his blue tatted face with what looks like a paper man. Her honey brown eyes turned to Evergreen after she heard a small giggle, seeing her shift her focus from him to her again. Lucy’s cheeks only reddened and turned away again; she’s not going to admit anything.

[***]

Hours later, Lucy sat on the floor of their balcony as everyone had fallen asleep. She always had trouble sleeping some nights, her mind wouldn’t forget about her life with her father. His words never left her mind, she could sometimes still feel…

Shaking her head, she looked back down at the tome she was reading to fall asleep. She could hear the snore of Bickslow and Laxus and the slight breathing from Freed and Evergreen letting her know that they were still asleep.

Her mind switching to music when it wouldn’t shut up, “I never knew person could be so deranged. Does it make it you feel good, do you feel strong, ruining the lives of everyone you love?” she sang, flipping the pages as she mindlessly tuned to it.

Not noticing one snore had stopped and the creak of the floorboards behind her, “This is for the kids with the beaten in lips. Whose parents tried to shut them up using their fists. Keep living loud and proud, they never can hold you down.”

“You're getting pretty loud there, blondie,” Lucy squealed, dropping the tome and moving to face the lightning mage with a racing heart. Her eyes wide with fear, “What’s a small weakling like you listening to that kind of music anyway?” he sat on one of the lone chairs out here as Lucy caught her breath again.

Ignoring the weak comment, since he calls everyone that, “I like it,” she stated simply with a light shrug.

“Seems kind of…not your style. You seem more like a pop, dance-y type of girl,” he intelligently mustered up.

This caused Lucy to snort, closing the tome and tracing the outline on the cover, “Yeah, well when you’re trying to escape your father treating you like a nobody and ignores you every time you go to him; music is all you have. Simply, teen girl hates her family.”

It took a whole 5 minutes before anybody even said anything, truly, Lucy timed it. Laxus then sat back up and started walking back into the room, Lucy thought it was the end of that conversation until his head turned slightly back, “You shouldn’t stay out here too late. You might get cold.”

After a couple of seconds and some quick pep talks, Lucy stood back up with a small smile decorated in her lips. Collecting her things and seeing the couch now cleared of stuff, she laid down and closed her eyes and falling asleep without hesitation.

[***]

Lucy, now at the market collecting various fruits and vegetables for an elderly lady. She was paying her 1000 Jewel just to get her groceries at the market because her son took the day off or something like that, it was a lot of jewel for something so small, but Lucy wasn’t complaining.

She was already planning her trip to Hargeon the next day, she was going to get a new key and hopefully, it was a gold one.

When she got up this morning, Laxus and the thunder legion were already gone with a note tacked to the front door, ‘Check out is 11 am, you better leave soon blondie’. it had already been a few minutes past 11 and she hurried around to gather her things before fleeing the room. The stellar mage had almost run over a cleaning lady, running out.

She just had to get today over with so she could make her way to the next town over. She didn’t kind of miss them but that just seemed what they were used to, she also wanted to learn more about them. Lucy just couldn’t wait to go to the other port city.

Though, it felt that she was going to get more than she bargained for when she got there.


	3. Do I know you?

“Can’t you take off a few more Jewel?” Lucy pleaded, leaning forward on the counter her chin between her hands, giving him her cutest puppy eyes, she could conjure up.

The store clerk smiled at the young mage, “Sorry I can’t drop the price any lower, 9,000 is all I can do,” he said sweetly, only Lucy knew that he was just trying to be nice when he could actually lower the price more.

Lucy finally found the magic shop in Hargeon, taking nearly half a day to find it but it was all worth it with the key Nicola, the little dog. It was so cute, and she just really wanted a new friend. She had enough Jewel, but she wouldn’t be able to find a place to stay for the night.

Sighing, Lucy placed the Jewel on the table and taking the key with her. Walking out the shop with the silver key in her hands, her brown eyes sparkled, she couldn’t wait to make a new friend. Lifting her head to see tons of girls screaming and crying out loud, crowding around a man with purple hair.

“What’s going on?” Lucy asked out loud as her hand placed the key back on her keyring.

However, the moment her eyes made contact with the questionable man; her heart started to beat rapidly. Her focus became tunneled on him, her mind was jumbled with thoughts about him and thoughts that is this is wrong.

Her feet started moving slowly towards the crowd with a forced smile, covering her heart with her hands. She didn’t want to go but it felt like she had no choice.

Then, out of the corner of her eye, she watched some kid ran up, between the whole crowd. “Igneel! Igneel it's me!” he yelled loudly with enthusiasm.

Lucy’s mind became clear, she blinked several times, seeing several of the girls screaming at the boy and his oddly winged cat. The blonde watched them beat and berate the young boy as the flying cat flew around laughing at his pain. He sat on the street, rubbing the back of his head with a sullen look upon his face. His pink hair was disheveled, and his red coat bunched up at the ends, Lucy noticed he was wearing a white

“Hey there,” she started, gaining his attention and his little cat’s attention, “Thanks for breaking the spell on me. That jerk was using charm magic to manipulate those girls,” looking back down to the young boy smiling at her.

“No problem, I didn’t even know what was going on,” He answered getting up, dusting off his white puffy pants and smiling again to the blonde, “Names Natsu and this is Happy,” pointing his thumb towards the flying cat behind him, waving excessively.

Lucy smiled back, with a wave of her own, “I’m Lucy, why don’t I buy you guys some lunch as a thank you?” she offered. Who knows what would have happened if he wasn’t there, why was that guy even using charm magic on these girls?

“You had us at food!”

They started running towards a restaurant without Lucy. She just blinked as they ran around people, apologizing for bumping into them but laughing at the entrance of a diner down the street, “I never said food,” Lucy muttered to herself as she made her way to them.

[***]

Her lunch with Natsu and Happy didn’t really go as planned, not the way she thought it would go. They ate as if they had never had food in their lives, and this was the first time they tried it. food was flying everywhere and they both talked with their mouths full of food.

So, instead of letting them talk and having food flying all over the place, Lucy started to talk about her dreams. Her dream of becoming a strong mage of being someone that someone else could look up to and call on. She wanted to join Fairy Tail, that was her dream guild, yet she didn’t know if she could join; like if she had to be some kind of strong or something.

Then she started talking about running into Laxus and the thunder legion, how she had tried to help them and it didn’t turn out too good as she had made it extremely worse, “They weren’t too nice but they still helped me out and provided a place to stay the night.”

Natsu crossed his arms and leaned back in the booth, scoffed at the thought, “Laxus is always an ass. He never wants to fight me,” rolling his eyes. Happy laughing with a mouth full of fish on the table next to the window.

“What? You know Laxus?” Lucy asked, slamming her hands on the table and getting in the pink-haired boy's face, mere inches from his nose.

Natsu raised an eyebrow at her, “Yeah? We are in the same guild?” shrugging nonchalantly.

Gasping, the blonde sat back down. She didn’t even think to ask him if he was part of a guild, was that mean? Should she have asked?

“Yeah, you didn’t know?” Happy commented, placing his fish back down on the table to cup his tiny paws over his puffed up cheeks laughing inconspicuously, he leaned towards Natsu, “She must really be dumb, right Natsu?” he didn’t even try to whisper causing Lucy to humph at them and turn away from them.

“Why don’t you just join Fairy Tail yourself?” Natsu asked, after laughing loudly for a few minutes, chomping on some leftover chicken that was on his plate.

Scratching her cheek, looking up to the ceiling in discomfort. She knew she could join but she didn’t know if she was really good enough to join the most famous, strongest, and most friendly guild in Fiore. Would she feel accepted by them, “Can I really join Fairy Tail?” she asked no one in particular but Happy flew in her line of sight, inches from her nose.

“Of course, you can. Why wouldn’t you?” he snickered, landing atop of the pink-haired boy's head.

Lucy stuttered her explanation for seconds, which didn’t even make sense to the young mage across from her or his tiny blue partner. Natsu then just shook his head and grabbed her wrist, running out of the restaurant with no explanation whatsoever.

She asks loudly where the hell he was taking her when he turned back to her with a fanged smile, “I’m taking you to Fairy Tail.”

[***]

It didn’t last long, her excitement turned to worry. Not much for herself as more with whatever that guy in the town square was doing. Upon waiting for Natsu to get back from the bathroom outside of the park, she had overheard a woman behind the fountain talking with the man she questioned just hours ago.

The man who claimed his name was Salamander telling this girl that she was invited to his yacht party for a good time and flew off on a purple flame platform. Lucy frowned her eyebrows, yacht party and there will be a ton of girls along with them, seems sort of fishy to her.

“You look like you have to go to the bathroom yourself, Luce,” Natsu goofed, laughing at the glare the blonde gave him. Moving next to her, he threw his hands behind his neck and walked along the road with her and Happy gliding above them, “Seriously, what’s got you so in thought just now?”

Sighing, gripping her bag as she looked down at her feet, “I don’t know. I think that guy in the square is up to something. I don’t like the way he was recruiting girls,” her pinky finger rubbing against her leather bag.

Turning to her, “You think we should investigate?” his features turned from serious to excited in a matter of seconds, “You mean be ninjas?!” he exclaimed.

Lucy watched him tug his scarf off his neck to tie it around his face, holding up his finger to his lips with Happy imitating Natsu just behind him.

In a matter of minutes, the three of them were set on the yacht, hiding, rolling, and whispering around corners and under counters. It was turning dark with the sun setting off to the west, Lucy watched it over the horizon as the boat was just taking off from the pier.

Natsu, still set in his ninja attire, had slowed to a stop near the ballroom. His feet staggard with a hand stapled to the wall for support, Lucy looked at him in question, about to ask him what was wrong until he doubled over with his other hand over his mouth.

“Natsu, are you okay?” she asked just as he threw up his whole lunch, Lucy had just bought him, all over the floor of the hallway. She at least had some notice he was going to barf when he gagged to let her know to back up.

Happy flew over to her head, “Natsu had motion sickness,” he informed her just as the mage in question fell face first. The blonde mage groaned, slamming her hand into her face.

“Why didn’t you say something before?” she whisper-yelled, looking around the corner to see if anyone had heard the Fairy Tail mage throw up just a few moments ago. The party on the ballroom was still underway in the next room with no intention of stopping.

The stellar mage did notice that there were mostly girls, it looked like about 70 girls here with maybe 10 men. It confused her to no end, what were they trying to do here? Turning back to Natsu, Happy curled his tail around Natsu’s waist, pulling him back up in the air.

“I’ll get him up high, so he could get back to himself again,” without another word they flew up to the sky, leaving her to take them on herself.

Steeling her feet on the carpeted floor, Lucy turned her head to see where the main guys where. She watched them sit in a secluded corner with a lone table and several bottles laying around. Turning back, the blonde took a nice deep breath with her eyes closed to get herself together.

Pivoting her right foot, she stomped in the ballroom, whip in hand as she snapped it in the direction of the sitting men, “Explain what you're doing with these girls,” at the same time as all of the girls fell to the ground unconscious, causing her to pause her movements.

The men then started to laugh loudly, standing slowly and making their way towards the blonde. She then backed up, straight into the wall behind her, letting out a cracked yelp when one man almost ripped her arm out of its socket. Her hand that held the whip, snapped in the man’s face, cutting his cheek in the process.

“Oh, you did it now, you little bitch,” his voice dropped, his eyes went dark as his grip tighten on her upper arm that she knew it was going to bruise.

Then another man wrapped around her ankle from behind her, Lucy saw the floor getting closer and closer to her face when her forehead smacked against the carpet before another man grabbed her opposite arm to bring her face to face with the man from the town square in Hargeon. His hand cupped her chin, moving her closer to his face, “You were at the port, I remember you.”

Lucy cringed at the sound of his voice, yet as she was about to make her usual smart-ass comment, someone crashed into the ceiling into the several men holding her. Lucy, then crashed face-first into the carpet again, as they all let go of her.

“Luce, I came back and I’m feeling better!” Natsu yelled out a second before he was holding his mouth again. Lucy then groaned and quickly got to her feet while pulling Natsu to his feet again, she asked if he was going to be alright and he nodded, “Yeah I’ll burn them all to a crisp.”

Eyebrows furrowing, Lucy then realized that she had no idea what kind of magic he used. Lucy then let go of the mage watching his hand catch fire, crawling up his arms as his eyes burned with passion at the group of men. Suddenly, Lucy was lifted through the whole in the yacht while she watches Natsu throw fire and blows balls of fire from his mouth.

“Lucy, I have some bad news,” Happy spoke, just after flying for a few seconds. Her honey brown eyes looked up to him with question deep in her eyes, “My time is up,” then she was falling to the sea.

[***]

A day later, the three of them were standing in front of the Fairy Tail guild hall. Lucy could barely hold her excitement at the thought of actually joining, of actually being a part of something for the first time, of actually being near the thunder legion and not being just a fan of theirs, though she wasn’t going to say that to anyone.

Back at the port, Lucy had summoned Aquarius to take the yacht back to the pier, after some strong and loud words from the water spirit. The boat was swept with a wave of water, along with Lucy and Happy being swept with it.

Natsu took out all of the slave traders, which she learned after the Sorcerer Weekly article the next morning, and Lucy learned that they were apart of some guild called Titian Nose and his name was Bora. It was a whole mess when the Rune Knights showed and Natsu grabbed her wrist to run the other way.

Now, here they were, at Fairy Tail! She really did try to repress the squeal burrowed deep inside her, but it came out anyway, it was accompanied by a small celebratory jump too.

Natsu turned to her, his hands behind his head, with a quirked brow but didn’t say anything and walked ahead of her to open the door with Happy standing on his shoulder. Lucy walked in behind him, although tentatively, she looked around to see Natsu fighting with someone she had seen on various news articles as Gray Fullbuster.

Her eyes fell on the bar maiden and they grew wide at the sight. It was MiraJane! The model, the mage, the absolute beauty that is MiraJane. Lucy could not believe she was in the same room as the girl. Since Natsu had completely left her to her own devices, Lucy walked towards the bar, maybe MiraJane could help her out on how to become part of Fairy Tail.

“Hi, how can I help you?” her bright white hair was shimmering as she turned towards Lucy with a kind smile painted on her face.

As Lucy was internally weeping at the meeting, she calmly placed her hands on the bar top to lean over, “Hi, I just, a, I thought about joining Fairy Tail?” she voices it more of a question than anything.

Mira’s smile turned soft, getting something from under the bar to set it on the counter, “Sure I’m just going to get the master to approve of it,” before she walked around the counter to duck under and walk up the stairs.

Lucy’s eyes wandered around to the balcony of the stairs to see the one team she’s been dying to see. Laxus and the thunder legion were sitting up on the second floor at a table drinking and laughing while Bickslow told some story. Her feet moved before she could tell them not to, yet she couldn’t get past the first step when the office door Mira went through burst open.

“LOOK AT ALL THESE COMPLAINTS FROM THE MAGIC COUNCIL!” the tiny master shouted, very loudly from the top of the balcony railing. He then proceeded to throw the now burning papers off the balcony to the crowd but Natsu jumped up to eat it.

“Guys, the council is angry with me all of the time but forget about the council members. Magic is not a miracle, when the spirit flows within us, it connects with nature. You will need a strong mentality and a lot of concentration for that. I mean, pouring your soul into whatever you do is the magic. If you keep worrying about the watchful eyes of the higher-ups, your magic won’t improve,” it was quiet for a second as everyone took it in, exceptionally Lucy.

Her eyes widened with amazement as he spoke, “So do whatever you think is right! that the way of the Fairy Tail mages!” this caused everyone to cheer loudly, causing more ruckus and fights to break out among the members. Even causing Lucy to smile at the phrase, do whatever you want, huh?

Only minutes later Lucy got her Fairy Tail insignia. On her right hand, in bright pink, stood out her guild mark. To the second floor she went, making her way over to the thunder legion’s table, she noticed Laxus looked up right before she got close with wide eyes. It looked like Freed was about to ask what he was looking at until he spotted her too.

They thought they would never see the blonde girl again, after she had touched each one of them differently, in a way they hadn’t connected with anyone else before and it sort of scared each one of them.

So, seeing her standing at the other end of the second floor with a wide smile on her face and from what Laxus could see was a guild mark on the back of her right hand, “Shit,” he muttered before she got too close.

Evergreen and Bickslow looked up at the grumble to see Laxus and Freed staring off at something or someone that was behind them. Snapping his head back, Bicks saw her, the girl that haunted his dreams from time to time. “Shit is right,” he muttered right after Laxus.

“Hi, guys! I’m finally joined Fairy Tail!” she exclaimed, showing off her guild mark with pride.

Her smiled sent shivers down their spines. They wanted to be angry, they wanted to tell her to go the fuck away and let them keep their reputation. It was hard for them to make friends; it was hard for any of them to open up even with each other.

So, when it was silent, Lucy opened her eyes again to see them looking at Laxus for some kind of answer. Her hand dropped to her side, eyebrows furrowing at their actions, she thought they would be happy to have her here.

“Who are you, again?” Laxus’ bellowing voice almost cracked at the harsh question.

Lucy flinched back at the notion, the idea that they didn’t know her, or they just didn’t want to. Her hands went up to her chest, feeling the sorrow burrowing deep inside, she blinked the tears away and stood tall, “It’s me, Lucy,” she tried, hopefully, to jog their memory.

There was a sigh from the blue-haired Seith mage, he really hated to do this, “The second floor is only for S-class mages. So, take your cosplaying ass back downstairs.”

Her hands gripped tightly to her shirt, swallowing she turned back to the stairs to see Natsu slammed the doors open and walk briskly out. Her head looked back to the table to see them back to their previous business of drinking and talking amongst themselves.

She sighed walking back down the stairs to the guild again. She guesses that she’ll find a mission or see what Natsu was so upset about. That could work to cloud her mind, forget about what just happened, and be happy that she was finally in Fairy Tail.


	4. Just take the damn invitation!

Lucy was utterly exhausted; she had mistakenly followed after Natsu when he angrily walked out of the guild two days ago. It seemed that he was upset that a member of the guild hadn’t come back from their own mission and his son was worried about him. Natsu went off on his own to rescue the guild member while Lucy tagged along, to get more experience.

What she didn’t realize that it was on top of a freaking snowy mountain. She was cold and shivering while Natsu didn’t seem too phased at all by the weather. In short, they walked all the way up to the top only for her to get kidnapped by the Vulcan instead of actually helping.

Then on top of all of that, Lucy had to find a place to live, she couldn’t very well live in a hotel forever. So, the very minute she set foot back on the ground from the mountain, she set off on finding a place to stay.

After much time looking, she found this place by the canal, which was fairly cheap, and it didn’t seem too small. Even though it was a studio apartment, the view was great and somewhat cheap. It was even furnished since she didn’t have anything to her name from leaving her father.

Now, she threw her bags by the door and collapsed on her couch, muffled by the throw pillow was a groan and exhaustion. It was early in the morning when she just got back from buying a little bit of food. She knew that she should have put her food away, but she really couldn’t feel her legs at this point.

When she heard a slight knock on her door, Lucy only groaned louder, almost ignoring it for the day and hopefully, it wasn’t one of her neighbors wanting to meet her. Then the knocking got louder and more spaced out.

Groaning once again, Lucy made it to her feet on the third knock. Slowly making her way over to the door she let out a small yawn, “Yeah?” she asked, gradually opening her eyes to see who it was.

“Geez blondie, you look awful in the morning,” his deep baritone brought her head up to see Laxus staring down at her with his pointed eyebrows. She noticed his sound pods wrapped around his neck with his fluffy coat set atop his shoulders.

“Laxus? What are you doing here?” tucking a stray hair behind her ear, Lucy shifted her feet off one another.

Instead of answering, he barged his way in and looked around indifferently, stormy eyes looking from her kitchen to her bed to her small and closed off bathroom, “Small place you got here.”

Lucy watched him, with arms crossed at the opened door, he just barged in from, “It’s still a place to stay,” she countered, seeing him shrug at the notion. 

Her hand gripping the door to close it, Lucy asked: “Is there something you needed?” However, before she could close it fully, a hand stopped her causing her to gasp loudly and hold her heart in shock, to see Evergreen making her way inside the apartment as well.

“I knew you were following me,” Laxus spoke, picking up one of the very few books that were sitting on the shelf before placing it back on the shelf, though in the wrong space causing Lucy to mumble under her breath.

The fairy mage, in turn, slapped him on the shoulder, “And you didn’t even stop to tell me you were coming here,” she yelled.

Lucy was about to ask what she was doing here and what they wanted when she heard a crash from the side window facing the canal and saw a heap of blue and black along with small wooden totems floating around. Bickslow was now standing up with a cackling smile on his face, “Hey guys, heard you were coming here, and I decided to come!” laughing while his little babies roamed around the apartment.

“Bickslow’s here now? What is going on?” Lucy exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air.

“I’m here too,” Freed raised a hand, eyes glued to a book he pulled off her bookshelf. When, the hell, did he get here? Where did he come in from?

Racking her hands through her hair, Lucy sighed while plopping herself on her couch, “Why are you all here? I thought you didn’t know who I was?” her voice spat with anger. She didn’t understand why they would be here when they were so adamant about not knowing her in the guild the other day.

It was a minute of complete silence when Freed sighed and stood in front of the blonde sitting on the couch, his hand placed on his katana as he looked at her, “We came here to apologize.”

“Apologize?” lifting a blonde brow, keeping her arms crossed in defense. They were here to apologize, why would they say that stuff in the first place. She was just trying to be nice to them.

“Yeah, so we’re sorry,” Laxus’ gruff voice was heard by the kitchen, drinking a glass of water.

She stayed silent, tapping her fingers against her side. Did they think that was really going to work with her? Just a damn sorry? Her eyes flicked over to Laxus before facing Freed again with an unamused look on her features.

“What he’s trying to say is we never meant to hurt your feelings,” Lucy felt the cushions dip next to her to see Evergreen sitting against the couch arm, facing Lucy. The blonde’s lip curled, that’s what he was trying to say?

Bickslow jumped to the loveseat across from the couch, his feet hanging off the side and having his totems seated vertically balanced on his booted foot, “Yeah Cosplayer, it’s just we have a reputation at Fairy Tail and we just didn’t want you to…” he trailed off, waving his hand in a circle.

Crossing her legs now, Lucy stayed silent, she was letting them dig their own grave as they did just barge into her apartment. She then spotted her groceries sitting at the front door that needed to be put away. So, getting up she picked up the bag and began to put the food away when she witnessed Freed helping her out in the kitchen, “Miss Lucy, we really didn’t believe that what we were saying meant any harm or misfortune.”

Sighing again, her hands full of carrots laid back down on the counter, “I understand why but what I’m not getting here is why are you all apologizing to me now? If you don’t want your reputation ruined by me then why are you all here?” slamming the carrots in the fridge at the anger boiling in her veins. She just didn’t understand why!

“Why don’t we go on a mission,” Laxus questioned, leaning against the kitchen frame.

Lucy had to blink, several times. Was…..was he serious? “What?” she simply stated.

The Seith mage jumped up from the loveseat to the counter/bar of the kitchen, “What a great idea Boss, we can go tomorrow,” his red eyes shifted to Lucy again with a hanging tongue, “What’d you say Cosplayer?”

Leaning her hip against the counter, Lucy crossed her arms. Did she want to go on a mission with them? Absolutely. Yet did they deserve it? She could ask Natsu to go on a mission, no problem, but he was also a handful.

“What kind of mission?”

Bickslow’s smile grew wider, he was glad that she was thinking about going with them. He was slightly afraid that she wouldn’t want anything to do with them after they made her feel like shit on her first day in Fairy Tail. She was nice to them, understanding reality, but they threw her away the minute she might get close to them. The Seith mage eyed his teammates, seeing Evergreen actually smile when Laxus was talking about what missions they usually take and Freed still looking through her books with a soft and comfortable look.

Then to Laxus to see him feel calm awhile he spoke to the blonde. It seemed that she was getting the whole thunder legion to open up again. It felt weird, it felt too open to the Seith mage, but he thinks it could help but not all at once.

“So, you usually take dangerous missions that take, sometimes, a month-long?” Lucy asked as she slipped an apple from her fridge, leaning back against the counter again.

“Yeah, is that a problem?” Laxus grunted, watching Ever jump up on one of the counters to sit in the kitchen with the conversation. Freed was sitting at a lone bar stool next to a playful Bickslow who was leaning his elbows across the counter with his chin seated in his hands.

Swallowing a bite before stating, “I mean, kind of. I’m not an exceptionally good mage, I mean, not on your guy’s level or anything. I don’t want to bring you all down.”

“Why don’t we train you then?” Ever had actually brought that up, crossing her legs causing her heels to click on the cabinet below her as she leaned forward on her hands by her hips.

Train her? That doesn’t sound half bad, “How so?” she asked, fully intrigued by being trained on various things from the thunder legion. They were strategic, they were strong, and she would love to have that for herself if she were ever in a bad situation. So far, it hasn’t occurred to her that she would be in a difficult situation.

“Normal training, strengthening magic containers and what you could do with your magic itself,” Laxus informed her, yet he wasn’t looking at her and moving his way to the door, along with everyone else. Lucy was glad somewhat, now she can finally nap for hours upon hours.

[***]

“No, hold your fists like this,” Bickslow moved her arm in a lower position so they weren’t in a position to smack back in her face. Tightening her fists but moving her thumb out of the fist, “Don’t put your thumb in, you might break it easier.”

Lucy nodded, straightening her back while blowing a piece of hair out of her mouth. Bickslow stepped away just a few feet away from the blonde, he patted his own chest, “All right, punch me as hard as you can,” smiling as her eyes grew wide.

“Are you sure?” the stellar mage asked. She was all decked out for her first training session with the thunder legion.

They had come to her place again the very next morning after she slept practically all day, Lucy was already up early. Her outfit picked out and coming straight out of the shower just to see Laxus and the thunder legion sitting in her kitchen and living room.

After giving them a scare from her loud shriek, she threw the closes thing to her, a lamp at Laxus as he told her to hurry up and get dressed. She took her damn time getting ready when she heard Laxus grumbling about her taking too long. Lucy came out dressed in a grey sports bra paired up with a grey and pink pair of leggings. Her keys dangling off her brown belt and her whip matched on the other side.

The place the thunder legion train is far out from Magnolia, almost to the next town over. They seem to have their own gym with a wide background. Lucy liked it, it was secluded from the town with tons of things to train with and no one to bother you.

Now, she was here, out in the back right in front of the forest in the dirt and gravel learning physical combat with Bickslow having almost run a marathon with Evergreen and felt like she was going to die.

Bickslow looked at her, lowering his arms with a chuckle, “I think I’m gonna be fine Cosplayer,” he joked, patting his chest again.

The stellar mage took a breath in through her nose, pulling her arm back forcing a small amount of her magic into her hand, closing her eyes and holding her breath as she swung.

“Was that it?” he laughed.

Lucy lowered her arms with a huff, “You’re so mean.”

Shaking his hands in front of her with a laugh, “No, it’s a good start. I swear, we can Improve with these,” his babies flew from behind him now them possessing punching bags and small targets for her to hit.

“Am I allowed?” it felt weird to hit his totems with how much she knew of his magic. They were still people and souls with thoughts and emotions, she didn’t want them to hate her or something. Her hands rubbed on her thighs out of nervousness, kicking a piece of gravel from under her foot.

They circled around her until they stopped with a sliver off Bickslow behind them, “Now, you get to punch these until Laxus calls you for your next,” waving goodbye with a cheeky tongue hanging out.

Lucy just let out a sigh but turned a determined look at the small little totems as they slowly spun around her as they even bobbed just to challenge her. The stellar mage let out her own cheeky smile, “Bring it on.”

[***]

She was brought out of her focused state as she heard a shout from the gym’s back door. Her honey brown eyes looked up to see Laxus standing outside the back door. Lucy stood up, sweat dripping down her whole body, her hair sticking to her forehead as Laxus waved her over to him as he walked back inside.

She dropped her hands, watching the totems fly off into the building as well. Lucy didn’t know if she was even going to make it inside without falling over. Hopefully, it wasn’t going to be too hard.

Laxus was sitting on the wooden floor, cross-legged with his eyes closed and hands on his knees. Lucy looked around for some direction, but she just assumed that she just had to sit with him. She stepped next to him sat exactly like him and closed her eyes. Her mind started to wonder though, as a shiver ran down her spine. The sweat on her skin was turning cold as it ran down.

“Will you stop twitching,” he muttered, opening his left eye to glare at her.

The stellar mage huffed, opening her eyes to glare hard right back, “It’s not my fault. I was sweating and it’s cold on here.”

Laxus frowned his eyebrows, closing his eyes again, “There are towels over there,” he nodded his head in the direction of a table nearby with white fluffy towels all stacked up and wrapped up. Lucy quickly stood up to wipe herself off before setting it back down to run back to the lightning slayer.

It only took minutes for Laxus to sigh loudly and moved bluntly towards her, causing her to jump slightly even moving back before he grabbed her wrists to position them at her knees instead of in her lap and straightening her back. His hands touched her chin to lift it to look even more straight than her back.

He sat back down in his own position, letting out a long breath before closing his eyes again, “Don’t move.”

Lucy really did try not to move once, her muscles were shaking, her fingers were twitching, her eyelashes twitched as her minded raced after what felt like an eternity but was only just short of an hour. Beside her, Laxus cracked his neck and his back before he stood up, “You are really bad at meditation blondie,” cracking his knuckles in the process.

Relaxing, Lucy glared up at him, “You’re bad at training,” getting herself up slowly, she was going to sleep so much when she gets home as she tried to stretch her sore muscles.

Her head snapped to the door slamming open with Bickslow, Evergreen and Freed threw the back door. Freed had his hair tied back and his jacket thrown over his shoulder, Ever also had her hair tied into a bun on the top of her head. The blondes watched Bickslow’s totems float around the room, then circling them chanting, ‘bath, bath, bath’. It really made Lucy giggle; a bath really sounded good.

“That does sound good,” Evergreen mused with a finger on her chin.

“Who won?” Laxus asked, pulling his own towel from the table as he held a small amount of sweat dripping from his forehead.

Freed sighed as his hand set itself down his jacket on the table, “It was a spare, nobody won.”

Evergreen scoffed, “I won,” afterward getting hit in the shoulder by the green-haired rune mage.

The five of them ended up leaving shortly after. Lucy was now sitting in her tub, bubbles up to her chin and her muscles so relaxed, she thought that she could fall asleep. She was really grateful for their help in their training today, teaching her how to defend herself and trying to meditate, now she wishes she could improve on that.

She honestly felt like she improved her marks on punches and stamina today and she really wanted to do it again. “Not anytime soon, I am so sore,” she mumbles, lowering herself further in her tub, covering her mouth completely.

“Who are you talking to Luce?”

Lucy gasped so loud that she swallowed bath soap, choking, and gagging before she could even say one word. “What is going on in there?” she heard the small exceed ask from behind the door.

After a few seconds of spitting soap and saliva out of her mouth, Lucy rasped out, “Natsu! Happy! What are you doing here?”

“We came here to ask you to go on a mission with us!” Natsu cheered, the stellar mage could hear drawers opening and closing. Now, she got up and dried before rapidly getting dressed to stop them from going through her clothes.

Slamming her bathroom open and pushing them away from opening her underwear drawer. “Mission? What kind of mission?” she wasn’t going to plan on going to a mission after her training today, however, she loved hanging out and fighting with Natsu and Happy. They were fun and optimistic; it made her feel like she was on an actual adventure.

Placing his hands on his hips, he threw her a wide smile, “Erza had asked us to go with her and Gray to a town talking about some Lullaby thing, I wasn’t really paying any attention. So, I thought that you would like to go with us!”

“Yeah! We think you’ll be able to learn something from it,” Happy shouted, holding a tiny blue paw in the air, causing the young girl to smile.

Lucy only took seconds to respond, “Yeah! That should be awesome!” high-fiving the pink-haired dragon slayer. She could learn more ways to defend herself and fight alongside some of the best there is in Fairy Tail.

[***]

He placed a small flyer on his master’s desk before silently making his way out. The master himself picked up the request sheet before a sinister smile spread across his face, “Oh, this is perfect,” he stated, writing down plan ideas for the next big war.

“Gajeel, get in here!” he shouted, opening his door to yell down the guildhall. This was starting now.


	5. All You Have To Do Is Watch Them

He took a deep breath, eyes closed and hands behind his head as the whole group walked down the cobblestone sidewalk coming back from Galuna Island after a few days on the Island itself; Gray sighed, “It’s good to be back,” shaking his hair out of his eyes.

Lucy giggled from beside him, she had once again gone on a mission with Natsu and Happy that was actually an S-class mission. The blonde had thought it was easy enough, even though it was one of the top jobs on the board and questioned the slayer on how he even got the job in the first place. She really should have known.

This was right after she and the team went and took care of Lullaby from the Eisenwald Guild. They were a dark guild that was trying to kill all the legal guild masters at the magic council. It was a hard week for the blonde, but she was still feeling happiness bubbling through her at gaining a new gold zodiac key. As she thought about it, the keys on her side warmed.

Right after Natsu, Lucy and Happy finished with the Everlue Mansion and the Daybreak book, she was packing for her mission to take down Lullaby when she spotted something glinting on her desk right under the new chapter of her novel. She didn’t remember having any jewelry that was gold, so it was odd that something like that was here.

_She walked over to it with a soft look on her face, just about to move the papers when she heard a loud thud at her window, Lucy yelped turning to see Natsu and Happy falling from her window sill with a smile and a laugh emanating from the two of them._

_“Natsu! What the hell? You scared me,” Lucy scowled but laughed towards the end when she noticed that Natsu had his pants stuck on her bed frame by the window._

_He was laying on the floor with his foot stuck up in the air and just laughed. Lucy had to roll her eyes and turn back to the gold piece that was on her desk, reaching out and touching the soft gold._

_Her scream caused the fire dragon slayer to flinch on the floor as he was trying to free himself, Happy flew over to the blonde who was just holding something to her chest with a wide smile and her eyes closed, “Something wrong Lucy? Did you stub your toe again?” chuckling around his paws._

_Ignoring his comment, she brought out her hand to show them the Virgo key she now possessed, “I got a new key!” she exclaimed loudly, even doing a little jump of excitement as Natsu finally got himself free._

_“Where did you get it from?” he asked, getting to his feet, dusting himself off before standing in front of the stellar mage._

_“I just found her on the desk, I don’t know how she got there,” looking back to her desk and moving the papers before Natsu could read them again. “Oh, I can’t wait to make a contract with her!”_

_Natsu had to remind her that the spirit was large like a gorilla so, she shouldn’t summon them here, in her apartment. The dragon slayer left right after Lucy went to the canal to summon the earth's spirit but was pleasantly surprised to find out that she looked like a normal maid with pink hair._

_The spirit looked nothing like the first time Lucy saw her, she stood tall with short, pink hair, and that was topped with a frilly little headband that was cute. Her short-skirted maid was normal against the very odd-looking shackles that hung from her wrists._

_She bent at the waist in front of the blonde, bowing with hand to her heart, “Hello Mistress, how may I help you?”_

_“Mistress?!” taking a step back in surprise. Lucy hadn’t been called that since she was back with her father when he would take her to clients' houses or a ball or masquerade party. The older men around her would call her ‘Lady’, ‘Mistress’, or ‘Young Heartfilia’, it made her shiver in her boots. Shaking her hands in front of her, “No Mistress, I don’t like that. Anything but that please,” she told the earth spirit._

_Virgo lifted her eyes to stare at the young mage, confusion wafting through her mind but her face was stoic, “Princess it is then,” she spoke after a moment of thought._

_“Princess is fine, or just Lucy,” She took a sigh when the spirit nodded slightly._

Now, as they strolled down the street, passed vendors and stores when Lucy started to feel a shudder down her spine. Her brown eyes started to wander to the townspeople all staring at them. Some pointing and others whispering at them. She felt weird, her arm came across herself when her nerves got the better of her.

Swallowing, she tugged on Natsu’s vest from beside her, he leaned his head back to give her a questioning look, “People are looking at us,” she gestured to the townspeople whispering as they walked further towards the guild.

His jade eyes glanced around then shrugged and kept walking, “It probably because of such a great job we did on Galuna Island.”

His laugh was always infectious, but this time she just gave him a small smile, her worries making her paranoid. Erza and Gray didn’t seem to notice either as they made small talk just as the guild came to sight.

Lucy gave an audible gasp when she saw it, the steel pillars that struck all over the broken guild. There were so many columns stick out here and there, that she was surprised that it was still standing. Before anyone could even say anything, Natsu ran straight into the broken guild hall screaming and cursing as he went with Happy flying off after him. Erza and Gray ran after him just a second later.

She walked after them, still in shock of just seeing the guild in such disarray. Her feet stepped in the guildhall, seeing up-turned tables, broken chairs and the bar was in pieces. Erza, Natsu, and Gray were slowly stepping around the empty guild, nobody saying a thing until MiraJane stepped up from a staircase from behind the bar.

“The guild was attacked by Phantom Lord, we opened up the basement for everyone to stay while we take jobs,” She explained, motioning for them to join her downstairs.

Once the team made it to the basement, Lucy saw the saddened faces of the guild members with mugs of beer or half-eaten plates of food. She felt bad for the guild, that they can’t have their safe space of their guild home when someone destroys it.

She didn’t know anything about this Phantom Lord guild and why they even did this. Lucy watched Natsu stomp up to Master, who was sitting crossed-legged on a crate, drinking a beer, “Gramps! What are you doing here getting drunk? We should be attacking them!” He yelled.

Taking a sip and a sigh, keeping his eyes closed, “Quiet, boy. Its no use when they attacked the guild with no one here. They struck the guild at night,” burping lightly before taking another sip.

Tilting her head, why would they attack at night when no one was here? That seemed counterproductive. Wouldn’t someone want to contact with the guild you’re trying to fight with unless there was more to come. They should have their most skilled members here to defend us but upon looking around she didn’t see Laxus or the thunder legion around anywhere.

Tentatively walking up to Master, she leaned against the wall next to him, “Master, where are Laxus and the others? Shouldn’t they be here if Phantom Lord attacks again?”

His right eye opened slightly to glance at her, “I have no idea where Laxus is but Freed is on a job with Bickslow and Evergreen,” he muttered against his glass, emptying it before setting it beside him.

Lucy thanked him as she walked out to go back home. Was Laxus with them or was he on his job and didn’t tell Master where it was. Lucy was just going to sleep off her worries till the morning. However, once she opened the guild doors, it was much worse than the previous day.

Everyone was running around rushing everywhere, grabbing weapons filled with Lacrima, and several of them taking drinks in encouragement from Mira. Lucy tentatively made her way towards the bar, dodging and apologizing when someone bumped into her, she found herself in front of Mira behind the bar, “Mira?”

Her head turned to her as her hands worked their way around mugs and beer and handing them out to people, “Yes, Lucy?”

“What’s happening?” watching Max and Nab work themselves mad, on getting a bunch of supplies in a bag and running out the guild doors.

The takeover mage laid her hands down with an empty, clean mug, “No one told you?” she asked, having the blonde slowly shook her head. Lucy had just arrived moments ago, and no one was really saying anything clearly, “Team Shadow Gear was attacked last night, Natsu and Happy found them this morning crucified to a tree. They are upstairs in the infirmary,” pointing to a door just right of the staircase on the second floor.

Gasping, Lucy looked up to the door for a second before looking back at the white-haired mage, “Well, what is everyone doing then? Who did it? Are they alright?” Lucy fired off question after question until Mira stopped her with a hand in the air.

“Master has declared war on Phantom Lord, there was a note nailed on the base of the tree with the signature of Black Steel Gajeel.” She said his name with malice, “Everyone is going around to attack them all at once.”

Placing her hands on the counter as her mind raced, everyone was going to attack another legal guild? This seemed normal to them as every member had an evil angry aura about them. Weapons and magic swirling all around the guild as almost everyone was now ready to raid.

Lucy gradually stood up, “I’m going to watch after Team Shadow Gear,” stating before making her way up the stairs, looking at the lounge area where Laxus and the Thunder legion would originally stay but it stood empty as she expected.

Opening the door gently, she saw the three of them lay still in cots across one side of the room, right across the door was wide open windows and medical supplies seated on small tables to the right of them. Making her way over to the small blue-haired mage, laying her hand on the bandaged wrist of her friend.

Behind the door, Lucy heard several members yell in chorus then steps of running away from the guild. It was quiet now, Lucy assumed that no one was downstairs anymore, she had to watch over them, hopefully nothing would come after them again.

[***]

Her path from the corner store back to the guild was clear, Lucy figured that the three of them would need something to eat when they wake up. Some drinks and chocolate bars swung in her hands as she strolled down an alleyway to get to Fairy Tail quicker.

Why did Phantom Lord do this to them? What did those three do to anyone that inspired this? She knew that Levy was the sweetest girl she’s met, they clicked instantly when Lucy first arrived in the guild. Jet and Droy were okay, they were a handful when it came to the small solid script mage and anything she does. There’s nothing that she could think of that would warrant this, at all.

She walked past a young girl with bright blue hair that was curled at the end. Her little pink umbrella held small hearts around it, Lucy thought it was really cute but quickly dismissed it as her mind went back to Levy and the boys.

Yet, she heard a whisper from the girl as she passed. Turning around, Lucy looked at her with a raised eyebrow, “Did you say something?”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a fluid of green until it manifested into a person who was flexible, bending back and forth with his arms off to the side. His hair was green, and a monocle held on his eye, “Juvia dear, we have a job to do. Don’t forget,” his eyes never leaving the blondes.

The Juvia girl twirled her umbrella over her shoulder, “Juvia hasn’t forgotten. She was just walking past,” spinning her head towards Lucy, her eyes as dead as Lucy had ever seen before. No spark of a fight, no light from behind those blue eyes of hers, just empty, fake souls of eyes. Bickslow’s magic could help, Lucy wondered if this girl even had a soul.

Just as she was going to pull a spirit from her key ring when she was surrounded by water, the stellar mage opened her mouth only to be filled with a gulp of water, sucking the oxygen right out of her lungs. She swore that Juvia had said something, but she could barely hear anything beyond the muffled waves of the water bubble.

Then it all went black.

[***]

Her head was stinging, pounding in pain as her mind came back to life. Blinking slowly just seeing bright, blinding light in front of her, Lucy came to her senses to see an opening with clouds beyond flowing by. A groan made it through her mouth as she tried to look around to see cream-colored stone and stairs off to the right of her. Trying to sit up, Lucy figured out her hands were tied behind her back, and her key ring nowhere in sight.

Another groan and a push on her shoulder and Lucy was sitting up with a clearer look around the place. Still empty with only a metal bucket in the corner, she could only guess what that was for. Scraping her leg on the hard, broken ground she heard the sounds of footsteps coming up the staircase, Lucy saw a man she had never seen before.

“Well, hello there, Miss Heartfilia. Have a nice nap?” he asked tipping his hat at her in apparent mockery. Her glare was trying to burn the mustache off him. “Do you know why you’re here?” he paced around the vacant space.

“To get back at Fairy Tail like you did Levy, Jet, and Droy?” Lucy guessed shrugging, feeling the rope around her tug against her skin.

His shoe tapping against the brick below, he made his way to the stellar mage while his boney, long fingers gripped her chin. Pulling her towards his face, smelling his gross breath in the air, “No, no miss Heartfilia. This is a mission that has to be complete. You, young debutant, are wanted back home, for a high price at that.”

Her eyes went eye, back home? She was just a reward? They did this all to her guild for her, because of her? Lucy hardly noticed the man, she assumed was Phantom Lord’s master from context, move away from her to look out the arched doorway.

Choking out a word, “What…um…what does he want?”

“How the hell should I know? All I know is that daddy wants you home,” she marveled at his nonchalant attitude about kidnaping a girl from her home to bring her back to some asshole father who wanted her to do some kind of revolting event he needed her for.

Maybe she could get herself out of here, her head lifted to the open archway, thinking that she could throw herself out of it. Getting to her feet and clearing her throat, “I need to go to the bathroom,” mentally shrugging at the cliché act.

The Phantom Lord master lifted a thin eyebrow at her, “You really think I’m going to fall for that?”

Squeezing her knees together to make it more believable and bending at the waist, “I REALLY have to go though,” she whined.

He then pointed to the gross, rusty bucket in the corner, telling her to go in that. She growled quietly before slowly walking over to the bucket and hearing the man squeal behind her as she almost pulled down her underwear and skirt. Once he turned around because he’s a ‘nice guy’, Lucy grinning as she lifted her leg back to kick him hard between her legs.

The blonde ran towards the open doorway just to glance down, all the way down to the dirt floor. She had to be at least 20 floors up, what was she gonna do? Jump? Looking back at him to see him getting back to his feet and pointing a nasty glare at her.

Her feet shuffled, she had no idea if anyone was coming or catch her if she fell. Moving back and forth as if she was going to jump off, when her hair was grabbed from behind, causing her to land right on her hands behind her.

“You little bitch, you’ll pay for that,” he growled through his teeth as he sneered down at her.

Lucy groaned, rolling on her side when he stomped back down the stair as he mumbled to himself. What was going to happen now? Go back to Father?

[***]

Fairy Tail was back in their guild, licking their wounds after their failed fight with Phantom Lord when Laxus and Bickslow with his totems walked through the front doors. They had plans to train Lucy in the next week after Freed and Evergreen get back from their mission. Natsu covered in bandages while sitting next to an equally bandaged Gray, looking up at the blonde s-class mage with a glare.

“Where the hell were you?” Natsu asked Laxus as he passed by.

“For what?” he jeered with Bickslow just behind him.

The fire dragon slayer got up on his feet, face to face with the lightning mage. Fire rolling down his arms while he growled, “Phantom Lord attacked us, and Gramps got hurt badly! Where the HELL were you? We could have used your help!”

He crossed his arms, cocking his head, “What? You couldn’t beat the measly little guild? No wonder you lost,” scoffing as he walked by, followed closely by Bickslow who’s eyes were looking for a mop of blonde hair in the mess of sullen looks and bandaged egos.

He furrowed his brows at her absence but thought nothing of it. Then out of nowhere one of his babies floated just a hairs breath away from Natsu’s face just as the hothead was about to start screaming at Laxus again. They started chanting ‘Cosplayer! Cosplayer!’ over and over when Natsu raised an eyebrow at them, not having his totems ever talk to him before.

“Who?” he asked in reply when they wouldn’t stop without an answer.

Bickslow ran over to physically grab his babies before Natsu set them on fire. “It’s Lucy. They were asking where Lucy was,” he muttered. It was weird to talk directly to someone in the guild that wasn’t Laxus or his teammates.

“Luce? I think Mira said she was in the infirmary,” scratching the back of his head, almost unraveling the bandage wrapped around his forehead.

The Seith mage turned back to Laxus who in turn nodded as the two of them headed up the steps. Below them, they could hear the fire dragon slayer screaming random insults before a guild brawl was started.

The two opened the doors to the infirmary only to see Team Shadow Gear sleeping on cost covered in bandages. No blondie insight or any trace of her.

“She’s not here,” Bickslow stated opening a cabinet just to see blankets and more dressings for wounds. Laxus nodded, flipping the curtain in his hands before turning back to the Seith mage.

“I’m sure she’s fine.”

[***]

The sight of her childhood home was coming closer out of the doorway. Her hands tied behind her back and a nasty black eye forming on her face with Gajeel holding her blonde hair between his gritty fingers. A tear falls down her cheek as Jose manically laughs with the Element Four standing beside him.

Her side stung where Gajeel had kicked her repeatedly for mouthing off, as he put it. Lucy was shocked that the whole guild building moved, walked on its own.

“This is going to be fun,” Gajeel grunted from behind her.


End file.
